actually finishing something in july | jumping on the bandwagon

 I hope you all had a marvelous Independence Week! I certainly did.
 Four days of not-nannying, ranch & PRCA rodeos, good music & friends, parades, fireworks, and too much barbeque make me one happy girl. Monday is going to be hard to survive.
 But I digress....

I am here to join (a bit late) Katelyn over at Whisperings of the Pen's little blog-hop link-up deal:

Actually Finishing Something [in] July

which is exactly what is sounds like, for writers.
Here's the deal. We all have a project (or two) we know we should work on in order to finish someday but have a bugger of a time trying to carve time out of our busy lives for it. So it sits in the corner, all dejected and lonesome day after day leaving us feeling guilty and occasionally sleepless.
NO MORE!
We finish this this month with the help of Katie's initiative and the pressure that comes with announcing a thing in such a loud and confident manner.

 

Week One Questions

1) What is your writing goal? 
I'm not going to attempt the impossible and try to finish one of my novels, but rather take great strides in one: The Legend of Skyrian. I wish by the end of the month to finish the first third of the book, which is equal to about seven (long) chapters.

2) Give us a short synopsis of your project. What makes it unique?
Books can usually be divided into three parts: The Set Up (where you are introduced to the characters & setting), the Backbone (by now you know the MC and now learn the point of the whole story), and the Climax (exactly that, plus the wrapping up of various threads and arcs). Any part can make or break  the story, but none more so than the set up. It has to be engaging and set the tone for the rest of the book. And that is my challenge.

Cilla believes Fate may have smiled at last on her and her friends when their master's cart brings them to a seaport town, where ships come and go daily and the chance of escape is within reach. But freedom may not just come in the guise of a ship with sails...

3) How long have you been working on this project? 
Too long. Since the end of January: that was the last time I scrapped TLOS completely in order to restart.

4)  How often do you intend to write in order to reach your goal by August 1st? 
Every day, as often as I get the chance (not often when you're babysitting a seven month old 7am — 5pm everyday.)

5) Introduce us to three of your favorite characters in this project.
There's Cilla, of course, who is my vessel through whose eyes I get to explore the semi-medieval world of Ithreal.
Then there is Aidan, a horsemaster from the west, who has a very dry sense of humor. And then there's Tovah. He's my best friend. Cilla tends to criticize me when I'm stuck and purposely avoid my pen, whereas Tovah is sympathetic and patient and sometimes even bails me out of trouble.

6)  Go to page 16 (or 6, 26, or 66!) of your writing project. Share your favorite line or snippet on the page.
She had one blue eye and one green. But the blue was so green and the green so blue that most of the time no one noticed.

7) Tea or coffee? 
Either over ice this time of year, I care not which!